School Crime Up 21 Percent In First Third of Fiscal Year

By ELISSA GOOTMAN; Sewell Chan contributed reporting.

Published: February 15, 2007

Major crimes in the New York City public schools increased by 21 percent from July through October of this school year over last, driven by a surge in grand larcenies, according to data released yesterday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's office.

There were 197 cases of grand larceny -- typically the theft, without threat or force, of items worth more than $1,000 or of credit cards -- during that period in 2006, up from 119 during the same period in 2005, according to the preliminary Mayor's Management Report, which provides statistics on government performance. Over all, the report showed 348 major crimes in these four months in 2006, compared with 287 in 2005. These 2006 numbers included 18 fewer robberies and one more burglary.

The report also noted an increase in minor criminal offenses, like misdemeanor assaults, to 983 from 820, and in ''other incidents,'' like trespassing, to 1,926 from 1,614.

Public officials said the statistics were cause for concern. ''Clearly, a 21 percent increase in major crimes in schools is a huge increase,'' said City Councilman Robert Jackson, chairman of the Council's Education Committee. ''Of course it's disturbing.''

But city officials played down the numbers, noting that the bulk of incidents occurred not during summer school but in September and October, when there were 39 school days in 2006, five more than in 2005.

In a news release, Mr. Bloomberg focused on the good news, saying crime was down at a group of nine particularly unruly or violent schools that had been assigned extra police officers after being designated ''impact schools.''

''We are making good on the promise to make schools a safe haven and provide a stable learning environment for students,'' Mr. Bloomberg said in the statement. Crime at the nine impact schools, his office said, dropped 19 percent from July 1 through Jan. 7 over the same period a year earlier, and violent crime 10 percent, compared with the previous school year.

John Feinblatt, the city's criminal justice coordinator, attributed the rise in thefts to an increase in portable and coveted equipment like laptop computers.

''The theft of computers, the theft of purses, the theft of pocketbooks, the theft of cellphones, is not stopping teachers from teaching and kids from learning,'' Mr. Feinblatt said. ''We are taking it seriously, but what we take most seriously are crimes that we think interfere with education.''

Mr. Feinblatt said the city was trying to combat the trend, for example by having schools mark their laptop computers with bright colors. ''We're talking about such a small slice of the school year,'' he added.

Figures released later in the day also showed that there were 55 sex offenses in schools from July through October 2006, up from 39 a year earlier, while the number of rapes, one, remained stable.

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers -- which has collected more than 4,500 accounts of assaults, verbal harassment and other problems so far this school year -- said the Department of Education had lost sight of school safety.

''There were a couple of years where there was a real focus on safety, and that focus has been eroded,'' Ms. Weingarten said, adding that she suspected that many school crimes went unreported. ''They are sending so many mixed messages to principals. They're sending these messages on paper that safety is important, but in terms of budgeting they're sending the message that if you use your money for tutoring that's better.''

In the news release, Mr. Bloomberg named two newly designated impact schools, both in Queens: Jamaica High School and Campus Magnet, which consists of a collection of small schools. At Campus Magnet, officials said, there were 28 crimes in all through Jan. 7 of this school year, up from 19 last year. At Jamaica, they said, there were 12 violent crimes through Jan. 7, up from eight last year, although the number of total crimes increased by only one, to 23.

Two other schools, Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx and Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan, improved enough to be removed from the impact list.

In areas other than the schools, the report, which covered the first four months of the fiscal year that started on July 1, found mostly positive trends, although there were a few exceptions.

The sharp rise in the number of building permits over the past several years, an often cited indicator of the city's economic growth, may be slowing down. From July to October, 24,612 permits were issued to construct or renovate buildings, a slight dip from 25,911 permits in the same period a year ago. But by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, officials said, they expect the total number of building permits to be roughly equal to or slightly higher than the figure from the last fiscal year.

Recycling, as measured by tonnage, declined 14 percent from the previous year. The number of families entering the shelter system from July through October was 24 percent higher than in the same period a year before, while the number of single adults entering the system was 6 percent lower. Over all, the average daily shelter census increased by nearly 8 percent for families and fell by 6 percent for single adults.